For relatively recent innovations, commercial tablets and ereaders have taken the market by storm.

In the tablet category, the iPad certainly set the pace for what's shaping up to be a hot sector. However, several of this tablet's competitors are giving Apple a run for its money in terms of features, network options and accessibility.

The Size and Nature of the Tablet/Ereader Market

Since the Kindle's launch in late 2007 and the iPad's release in the spring of 2010, both tablets and ereaders have become part of mainstream mass markets relatively quickly.

In 2010, an estimated 10.3 million tablets and 6.7 million ereaders were sold. As far as ereaders are concerned, the Kindle remains the most popular unit, followed by Barnes & Noble's Nook.

Still, both technologies are very much in the "early adopter" phase, with between 7% and 11% of respondents in two recent surveys saying they owned either type of device. Not surprisingly, the purchasers of these gadgets tend to be young, male and affluent. Respondents whose households net $150,000 annually or more were more than twice as likely to report owning a tablet or ereader.

Another demographic more likely to have these gadgets is families with children. For those who have ever tried to educate or entertain the young, this statistic will hardly comes as a surprise. For respondents with two or more children living at home, 22% said they owned an ereader and 12% said they owned a tablet.

While current sales figures show staggering growth, the market could implode just as quickly as it's exploded. The gadget marketplace is already crowded, and any kind of economic downturn could send consumers scurrying back to more multipurpose devices. And for single-use, high-price devices such as the higher-end ereaders, growth is certain to slow in the coming years as tablets and the larger smartphones gain popularity as reading devices, as well.

If nothing else, the lightning-fast growth of the tablet market, which only took off a year ago and has already surpassed the four-year-old ereader market, should be some indicator of the ereader's long-term chances. Still, with some units available for less than $100, lower-end ereaders may remain an attractive option for those outside the young-rich-male demographic.

Where's the Competition?

With a wide range of functions and features, tablets compete with an equally wide range of devices, including mobile phones, laptops, ereaders themselves, and all manner of portable entertainment devices. As a result, manufacturers are able to frame tablets as all-in-one gadgets that match a high price with high value.

On the other hand, tablets are only multifunctional to a certain extent — they won't be replacing traditional PCs anytime soon. As rich as the various app ecosystems may become, tablets are still best suited to (and marketed for) tasks involving content consumption rather than creation.

Ereaders, on the other hand, face a very different and much more dangerous set of competitors: old-fashioned, cheap print materials. In addition to throwing down with tablets that have ereading apps and features, ereaders must continue to compete with traditional magazines and books.

To this day, low-tech print publications make up nearly 93% of the market, with ebooks claiming just 7%.

In addition to facing competition from these traditional print publications and tablets with ereading capabilities, ereaders must also contend with PCs and smartphones, which are also popular among respondents for ebook-reading capabilities.

Top Companies in the Market

While the top players in the field don't often relate sales figures to the public for an apples-to-apple comparison, Apple and Amazon are clearly leading the pack in their respective sectors.

Apple's lead in the tablet area is at least partly due to the fact that competitors' offerings are still relatively nascent. To date, Apple has sold 15 million iPad and iPad 2 units.

However, many competing products are appearing in the space. Samsung, Motorola, and perhaps now Sony all have entrants in the field, and time will tell whether the Android-based devices will offer Apple as much competition on the tablet front as on the mobile phone front.

As far as ereaders go, with Borders out of business and the fate of its Kobo ereader uncertain, Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook continue to battle for consumers' attention.

In fact, Google may end up being one of the most influential names in both categories via its Android operating system and app market and its Google Books reading and purchasing platform.

What We Use These Gadgets For

As previously noted, consumers use tablets and ereaders. That is, people buy these gadgets in order to consume content.

While we might be using our PCs to get work done or create art and we're happy to be productive on our phones, tablets and ereaders have largely remained devices of leisure which we use for reading, playing, listening to music and watching movies. Email seems to be the greatest exception to that rule.

Most consumers express more interest in reading ebooks on ereaders over reading them on tablets, in spite of the availability of tablet ereader apps. Also, free content (movies, music, reading material, apps, etc.) remains popular across both platforms.

Series Supported by CBS Interactive

The Consumer Trends Series is supported by CBS Interactive, which helps you find the perfect audience with a network of sites starting with CNET, CBS.com, CBS Sports and GameSpot – to name a few. To see how our exclusive content, video and mobile can help you engage with your ideal target, visit CBSInteractive.com/ideal.

Mashable
is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Powered by its own proprietary technology, Mashable is the go-to source for tech, digital culture and entertainment content for its dedicated and influential audience around the globe.